Homemade shower cleaner

I am trying to be more "green".  Not because it's trendy, not because it's cool, but because I genuinely have a problem with the amount of trash I create and its effect on the earth that we live on.  One of the ways I am trying to be conscious of my consumption is by using homemade cleaners.  They're cheap (which fits our frugal lifestyle), use less plastic, and they clean well!  I purchased some refillable plastic squirt bottles at the dollar store for, you guessed it, $1 each.  They have handy little lines on them for measuring and the lines even include ratio amounts so there's no need to use other measuring utensils.

Here's the recipe for the shower cleaner I have been using:

1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
2-3 drops dish soap
5-10 drops essential oil (optional)

I picked up a small vial of green tea and cucumber scented oil at JoAnn fabric for $. 99 on clearance.  It's probably not a great quality oil because it's a man made scent, but hey, it was cheap and it smells good to me!

It costs about $ .20 for the ingredients in this 16 oz. cleaner--pretty fabulous, right?

Now, I won't lie--homemade cleaners are not as "heavy duty" as commercial household cleaners so they require more elbow grease.  You can exert less effort though by keeping up with your cleaning.  My shower ritual is to spray down my shower stall with a few squirts of the above solution 10 minutes before I shower and then when I get in the shower I take a minute to scrub the walls with the handy brush I keep in the stall, and then rinse the walls.  This way, I am just keeping up with things rather than waiting until I have a big ol' mess to tackle.  You know how they say "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"?  Well, scrubbing your shower for a minute daily keeps the mildew and soap scum away!

I will be adding more information on making your own cleaners as I progress in my journey with them.  Anyone else have any concoctions they'd like to share?  Leave a comment--I'd like to hear it!